Our Learning Culture

Our learning culture cultivates conditions for children to thrive and be active and independent learners.

These aims are tightly woven within our school mission statement.

 Knowledge

We teach children in our school to know about things and know how to do things.  They gain knowledge and make this deep-rooted in their memory – imitation and internalisation;

“the joy and wonder of learning”

Exploration

We inspire children to explore and question so that they can find out more, and realise that there are some things we don’t know or fully understand.  They use knowledge to explore and gain deeper insight and understanding to help shape new ideas – innovation;

“intellectual curiosity”

Communication

We nurture children to be able to communicate about things they want to explore, things they have discovered or theories they’ve developed.  The creation of final outcomes formed from those new ideas that are shared with others through different forms of communication – invention;

“creative endeavour, compassion for others and the courage to act on their beliefs.”

 

Values of our Learning Culture

Our community is loving, peaceful and joyful.  We are patient and kind. We respect and value everyone.  We are open and honest and are ready to say sorry, forgive and move on.  We nurture each other to trust, hope and be resilient in the face of fear and anxiety.  We embrace challenge and support each other to get back up when challenges can knock us.  We do this as we journey together in faith.

These twelve values that are integral to our community help us ensure that;

• we teach children that democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance are upheld in our communities as universal human rights for every citizen

• we teach children that intelligence is not fixed, that humans can develop ‘growth mindsets’ (to think about thinking and to learn about learning) that support a lifelong love of learning

• everyone learns together, with each other and from each other.

Our Learning Powers

Learning Stage	Learning Powers	What do these look like?
‘Team’	‘Hero’	‘Characteristics & personality’
Knowledge	Concentrate	Perseverance and focus Manage distractions Immersed in the activity Do one thing at a time Break things down Follow a simple procedure Plan and think it through Draw diagrams Jot down thoughts of things which will helps
	Curiosity	Ask questions Notice things Look for patterns and connections Think of possible reasons Research, ask ‘what if..?’
	Challenge     (This is also a school value)	Have a growth mindset Define Identify Name, draw, find,, label, match, Don’t worry if it goes wrong Learn from mistakes Be excited to try new things
Explore	Resilience       (This is also a school value)	Taking on challenges, don’t give up Learning from mistakes Taking risks Specialising and generalising Describe, outline Follow an algorithm Work hard, practice lots, keep going Ask for help Take a brain break, start again
	Imagination	Be creative Imagining and expressing Unlimited – let your imagination go Think up new ideas and questions Try new strategies
Communication	Respect   (This is also a school value)	Listen to others Say when you have an idea or when you don’t understand something Be kind when you disagree Empathise with others Explain things to help others Be tolerant
	Reflection	Keep reviewing your work Identify your best bits ‘wow work’ Improve one thing first Accepting feedback and criticism Conjecturing and convincing Organising and classifying Try to better than last time Don’t compare yourself with others, only yourself.
	Enjoyment	Feel proud of all your achievements Feel your neurons connecting Imagine your intelligence growing by the minute Use what you have learn in real life Know you can do it if you have input and you practise